COVID vaccination dry run punjab assam andhra pradesh gujarat how mega inoculation plan will unfold

covid vaccine dry run, vaccine dry run, coronavirus vaccine dry run, 4 states dry run, punjab, assam — Image Source : PTI
COVID vaccine dry-run in 4 states begins on Monday: Here's how the mega inoculation plan will unfold

A two-day dry run has been planned by the Centre to assess the readiness of the mechanism laid out for the COVID-19 inoculation drive in four states including Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat. The exercise will be conducted on December 28 and 29. The Union Health Ministry has prepared a detailed checklist to guide the four states in the dry run.

The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has recommended three prioritised population groups including, healthcare workers (about 1 crore), frontline workers (about 2 crore), and prioritized age group (about 27 crore).

The Union Health Ministry said the present cold chain system consisting of 85,634 equipment for storage of vaccine at about 28,947 cold chain points across the country will be used. The current cold chain is capable of storing an additional quantity of COVID-19 vaccine required for the first three crore prioritised population.

THE VACCINE DRY RUN

The dry run will include necessary data entry in Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring of vaccine delivery, testing receipt and allocation, deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries, as well as reporting and evening meeting.
The exercise will also include testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID-19 vaccine, management of crowd at session sites with proper physical distancing.
Each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in five different session-type settings -- district hospital, community health centre (CHC) or primary health care centre (PHC), urban site, private health facility, and rural outreach.
According to the Health Ministry, the exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment, linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process. This will also provide hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels.
The dry run will also focus majorly on the management of any possible adverse events following immunization (AEFI) as well as on adherence and management of infection control practices at the session site to prevent disease transmission.
The mock drill will include concurrent monitoring and review at block and district levels, and preparation of feedback to be shared with the state and the Centre.
Stating that the Central government was gearing for the roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine across the country, the health ministry said that training of trainers and those who shall administer the vaccine has been taken up in various states.
To strengthen the human resource for the vaccine introduction and roll-out and detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators, including medical officers, vaccinators cold chain handlers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels.
The training includes all operational aspects of training like organisation of vaccination sessions, use of Co-WIN IT platform for management of the entire vaccination process, deployment of HR cold chain preparedness, management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste management, infection prevention protocols among others.